4 CALCUTTA. Chap. I. 



but many years must elapse before the gardens can resume 

 their once proud pre-eminence. 



I was surprised to find the Botanical Gardens looked 

 upon by many of the Indian public, and even by some of 

 the better informed official men, as rather an extravagant 

 establishment, more ornamental than useful. These 

 persons seemed astonished to learn that its name was 

 renowned throughout Europe, and that during the first 

 twenty years especially of Dr. Wallich's superinten- 

 dence, it had contributed more useful and ornamental 

 tropical plants to the public and private gardens of the 

 world than any other establishment before or since.* I 

 speak from a personal knowledge of the contents of our 

 English gardens, and our colonial ones at the Cape, and in 

 Australia, and from an inspection of the ponderous 

 volumes of distribution lists, to which Dr. Falconer is daily 

 adding. The botanical public of Europe and India is no 

 less indebted than the horticultural to the liberality of the 

 Hon. East India Company, and to the energy of the several 

 eminent men who have carried their views into execution. f 



* As an illustration of this, I may refer to a Report presented to the 

 government of Bengal, from which it appears that between January, 1836, and 

 December, 1840, 189,932 plants were distributed gratis to nearly 2000 different 

 gardens. 



f I here allude to the great Indian herbarium, chiefly formed by the staff of the 

 Botanic Gardens under the direction of Dr. Wallich, and distributed in 1829 to 

 the principal museums of Europe. This is the most valuable contribution of the 

 kind ever made to science, and it is a lasting memorial of the princely liberality 

 of the enlightened men who ruled the counsels of India in those days. No 

 botanical work of importance has been published since 1 829, without recording its 

 sense of the obligation, and I was once commissioned by a foreign government, to pur- 

 chase for its national museum, at whatever cost, one set of these collections, which 

 was brought to the hammer on the death of its possessor. I have heard it remarked 

 that the expense attending the distribution was enormous, and I have reason to 

 know that this erroneous impression has had an unfavourable influence upon the 

 destination of scarcely less valuable collections, which have for years been lying 

 untouched in the cellars of the India House. I may add that officers who have 

 exposed their lives and impaired their health in forming similar ones at the 



